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Well it seems as if Marantz is ready to deliver DLP’s answer to 1080p front projection, the VP-11S1 is scheduled to be available to consumers in July, for a suggested retail price of $19,999.

I had hoped that DLP’s first forays into 1080p front projection would offer Sony’s VPL-VW100 a run for its money. But with the Marantz (and others) coming in at nearly twice the price, I suppose the only real competition in the Ruby’s price range will be the Optoma HD81 or possibly Sim2’s HT3000 (although I expect the Sim2 to retail in the 15k range)

But without a full review of the VP-11S1, I’ll obviously reserve judgment as to whether any of the projectors mentioned above, warrant direct comparisons with Marantz’s first entry into 1080p front projection.

A couple of other interesting tidbits I gleaned form the press release were, the VP-11S1’s 2.35.1 friendly, features like the built-in vertical stretch mode and dual-aspect ratio projection screen triggers as well as its fluid filled bearing motor for quiet operation.

Another impressive feature is the VP-11S1’s video processor from Gennum, capable of “calculations on the order of 500 million floating point operations per second” That’s an incredible amount of processing power….

Having reviewed the Marantz VP-12S4 last year, I’m really anxious to get some time in with the VP-11S1. I found the VP-12S4 to be one of the (if not the) very best 720p front projectors I’ve ever viewed, I’m almost drooling at the thought of those Minolta optics paired with 1080p resolution.